The Paperworld trade show in Frankfurt am Main is a major international trade show and the venue for a multitude of product announcements from stationery manufacturers.
To my surprise and delight, the pencil industry is in focus this year thanks to some attending pencil bloggers.
First and foremost, a post from Lexikaliker has highlighted a really interesting new sharpener from Westcott. As well, the famed El Casco sharpener, and an entire new pencil category – an extruded woodcase pencil from Staedtler, the “WOPEX”. It seems the pencil layers – lead core, wood casing, paint varnish – are all extruded in a finished format. Quite amazing.
A second report shows the LYRA Colorstripe and Faber-Castell horsehair pen. This pen has already been discussed online. But a comment at Lexikaliker was the funniest – the 5000 Euro price should surely include the horse!
Stationery from our friends at Bundoki – has had eight posts on Paperworld.
Amusing giant pillar-sized pens, new finishes from Kaweco, and even more children’s specialty writing implements are among the items they mentioned.
Finally, Woodchuck at pencils.com seems to like the Lyra Groove and Colorstripe. We’ll apparently see more tomorrow. (Lexikaliker readers saw the Groove two months ago.)
[Update, February 4, 2009] A third post at Lexikaliker showcases some new Staedtler products.
[Update, February 6, 2009]< The Timberlines report on the show has appeared.
LYRA Colorstripe is just awesome !!! I hope it will not only be for German market …
Extruded pencils? Hmmm…I have a pasta machine and an Easy Bake Oven at home. I wonder how many cups of graphite the recipe calls for? I can’t get too excited about the WOPEX pencil until I get a chance to try one. The proof is in the pudding :>))).
LYRA Colorstripe gets my vote for most innovative woodcase pencil since the advent of Faber-Castell’s Grip series of which the Lyra Groove appears to be no more than a concave variation. If it weren’t marketed toward children I doubt it would garner any kind of tradefair award at all. The Colorstripe is far more exciting IMHO, every bit as revolutionary as last year’s Kuru Toga. They do look like a _____ to sharpen though.
And I think I’ll pass on Paperworld’s 2009 Pen Of The Year, F-C’s “Dobbin” given an innate aversion to hair jewelry :>))).